The prior art currently offers a variety of instrument stands to meet the basic needs of musicians. In some settings, such as primary and secondary school music classrooms, a simple stand that can hold a plurality of instruments will often suffice and may be preferred due to cost and space considerations. For example, the utility patent (U.S. Pat. No. 6,540,182) to Wilfer teaches a string instrument stand that may be employed to hold a plurality of such instruments. However, instrument stands that can support a number of instruments simultaneously have several disadvantages. First, they tend to be somewhat large and generally do not provide secure and stable support when holding instruments. In addition, if built having a sturdy construction, they tend to be heavy and are not easily moved from one location to another. Further, as can be seen in FIG. 1 of Wilfer, stands of this type may not provide for any adjusting to fit a respective instrument. For example, consider the size difference between a stand-up bass, an electric guitar, or an expensive vintage mandolin. To safely provide even a minimal level of support (e.g., somewhat precarious support) for this variety of string instruments would prove difficult, if not impossible, for a stand such as that taught by Wilfer.
When considering professional musicians, who often must transport their instruments, cases, and associated gear, an ideal stand would preferably be at least partially foldable, light weight, strong, and provided for fully supporting the various portions of the instrument. All this is preferable, while securely supporting a plurality of portions of the instrument, while preventing an easy knocking or toppling over of the instrument. Unfortunately, known lightweight and foldable instrument stands taught by the prior art are often structured with 3-point tripod (triangular footprint) base arrangements, and tend not to be very stable. Many of these exist in the prior art. A few possibly relevant examples may be found in Schoenig (U.S. Pat. No. 5,029,796) and Gracie (U.S. Pat. No. 5,622,344). In addition, as with the first class of stands discussed above, there is often no provision provided for fully supporting an instrument, in a robustly adjustable fashion, as taught by the collapsible instrument stand of the present invention.
Yet another class of instrument holding prior art inventions can be found in what may be termed multifunction instrument stands, which are structured for holding or at least partially supporting an instrument while providing at least one additional function. Several of many available examples can be found in Vail (D477,718), Vail (U.S. Pat. No. 6,585,315), and Brown (U.S. Pat. No. 6,945,597).
As understood by skilled individuals, a simple, robustly adjustable, and fully foldable instrument stand is most desirable. A most preferred structure would have a simple construction that reduces the number of constituent portions and is easy to set-up. Further, when considering high quality string instruments, which often have finely finished and highly polished surfaces, a preferred instrument stand would provide a secure, full, and possibly cushioned supporting of most if not all major portions of an instrument placed upon the stand.
Accordingly, the present invention teaches an improved instrument stand, structured to properly support and securely hold an instrument while distributing the weight of the instrument over a significantly greater area than present prior art stands. In addition, it would be most desirable to provide this instrument stand having a stable base, and a fully foldable structure that is easy to transport. A number of other characteristics, advantages, and or associated novel features of the present invention, will become clear from the description and figures provided herein. Attention is called to the fact, however, that the drawings are illustrative only. In particular, the embodiments included and described, have been chosen in order to best explain the principles, features, and characteristics of the invention, and its practical application, to thereby enable skilled persons to best utilize the invention and a wide variety of embodiments providable that are based on these principles, features, and characteristics. Accordingly, all equivalent variations possible are contemplated as being part of the invention, limited only by the scope of the appended claims.
The above provided Background section is included to provide a quick and concise overview of several prior art instrument stands and possible motivations for at least a portion of the features of the present invention. This Background section is not intended to provide a complete and exhaustive summary of all prior art instrument stands that may be deemed related to this invention. Further, the content of the Background section is not intended to limit the scope and or meaning of the claims.